Walmart has closed on 41 acres at the southeast corner of FM 455 and the Dallas North Tollway in Celina, Texas, clearing the way for a second Supercenter in a city that just opened its first one four months ago. The site sits adjacent to the sprawling Legacy Hills community, putting the retailer directly in the path of one of the fastest-growing pockets of North Texas.
The Celina City Council approved an economic development agreement with Walmart in July, according to Connect CRE. Under that deal, the city and the Celina Economic Development Corp. will jointly provide a 50% sales tax reimbursement grant for 10 years, capped at $3.4 million over the life of the agreement, according to official transcript records from the City of Celina's July 14 council meeting. Altogether, Walmart stands to receive up to $5.1 million in incentives, per Connect CRE, in exchange for investing at least $25 million in the new store, excluding land costs, and maintaining at least 120 full-time employees for the length of the agreement. The land acquisition itself must close by December 31, per the city's records.
Connect CRE reports the planned store will span at least 150,000 square feet, roughly three-quarters the size of Celina's existing Walmart Supercenter. That first location, a 197,965-square-foot store featuring an on-site e-commerce fulfillment center, drone delivery capabilities and a 10-stack fuel station, opened off Preston Road on April 29 with 460 employees, according to Local Profile.
A Town Built on Rooftops
Celina has earned the label of America's fastest-growing town, per Connect CRE's report on the deal. That characterization lines up with federal data: U.S. Census Bureau population estimates reported by CBS News in May found Celina ranked as the fastest-growing city in the nation among municipalities with more than 20,000 residents, expanding 24.6% between mid-2024 and mid-2025 to reach 64,427 people. The city's population sat at just 6,028 in 2010.
Four of the five fastest-growing U.S. cities in that same census window were clustered in the northern Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs — Celina, Princeton, Melissa and Anna — a pattern CBS News says reflects suburban migration outpacing core urban growth across the region. City building permit data reported by Texas Land Agent shows Celina issued 2,930 single-family residential permits in 2024 alone, a single-year municipal record and a 17% jump over 2023.
Legacy Hills and a Tollway Race for Grocery Shelf Space
The new Walmart site borders Legacy Hills, a 3,200-acre master-planned community from Centurion American Development Group slated to include nearly 7,000 single-family homes, 4,100 multifamily units, an 18-hole championship golf course and 100 acres of commercial space, according to REX Real Estate. That kind of density is exactly the built-in customer base retailers are chasing along the tollway corridor.
Walmart isn't the only grocer angling for a foothold there. H-E-B purchased a 21-acre site in April 2024 at the northeast corner of Dallas North Tollway and Fred Smith Parkway, also inside Legacy Hills, the Dallas Observer reported at the time. The competition underscores how much retail real estate along the tollway has become a land grab years ahead of actual rooftops going up.
A $460 Million Tollway Extension Is Fueling the Rush
Much of that western-corridor momentum traces back to a major infrastructure project still years from completion. The North Texas Tollway Authority is building a $460 million, six-mile extension of the Dallas North Tollway's main lanes from US 380 to FM 428 through Prosper and Celina, scheduled to wrap by late 2027, according to Community Impact. That extension will feed directly into the FM 455 and tollway intersection where Walmart's new site sits.
Meanwhile, the retail boom isn't confined to the west side of town. On the east side, Celina's first Walmart already anchors Shawnee Trail, a $1 billion, 150-acre mixed-use development from Trademark Property Company and G-Man Development that is set to break ground on a broader phase of offices, restaurants, green space and 600 apartments in 2027, per The Business Press. And along Preston Road at Ownsby Parkway, a Costco warehouse opened Wednesday alongside an adjacent 105,000-square-foot Home Depot, according to LivingWell Realty — a corridor the outlet describes as having rapidly transformed from farmland into a primary regional commercial node.
Taken together, the two Walmarts, the incoming H-E-B, Costco, Home Depot and the surrounding master-planned communities paint a picture of a city racing to keep pace with its own growth. With thousands more homes already permitted and a major tollway expansion still two years out, Celina's retail landscape looks likely to keep shifting well before the next census count.
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